Spirits from the Past
by Esherymack
Summary: Slight AU. Marian Cross was never who he claimed to be. When on a mission to a dilapidated old manor, Allen and the gang find out the truth from a young spirit, forcefully torn from his body and replaced with a twisted sorcerer obsessed with eternal life. No yaoi; family relationships and such. Mild spoilers.


**A/N: **I've been thinking on this for a _freaky _long time. Like, when I first laid eyes on that D. Gray-man manga vol. 1 like last year. I was like O:

Lol kidding. I'm not that weird. But still, _freaky long time._

And then there's now and I'm like TT_TT noooo Tim *go read 217 if you haven't yet. Not gonna spoil it for you other than that*

And freakin out and shit XD

Because

_feels._

Disclaimer: D. Gray-man is property of Katsura Hoshino. It's not mine. Rawr.

By the way: this is an angst-filled side story of my other story The Adventures of a Teenage Cross. It's like, the dark side of that. Since, y'know, I made my pretty lil' OC Kain a real dick XD By the way, I *spoiler* kill him :D*endspoiler*

* * *

**Prologue**

_A quiet town near the Wales/England border_

* * *

It was one of _those _nights: the nights when Dragon was feeling particularly cruel, or had a bit too much whiskey, or decided that he really didn't like having an apprentice to do his bidding.

Marian squeaked and ducked as low as he could behind a barrel, immensely glad for his slight frame. Dragon's shadow lurched past, casting inky black shadows onto the whitewashed wall. Marian closed his eyes, expecting his master to see him, snatch him out, and do something terrible to him. Fortunately enough, Kain Dragon had enough alcohol in his system that he could hardly see a foot in front of his face.

"Aye, ye bleein' coward o' an 'prentice," he half roared, half slurred out. "Git ye stinkin' arse outta wha'ever _ratnest _ye'r hid'n an' git back t'werk," he muttered and vanished, sword dissolving away. Marian let out a breath and rested his forehead on the splintery wood of the barrel.

Marian was unfortunately the 'bleein' coward o' an 'prentice' that Kain was referring to. The exorcist general had picked him up about two years prior, after a rather dark incident involving the gun Marian called 'Judgment' and a circus freak named Antonio. Kain promised to keep Marian's history with guns and circus freaks from the police as long as Marian did exactly what he said.

Praying that Kain would have returned to the hotel and passed out somewhere within the vicinity, Marian slowly crept from his crude shelter and dashed over the walk to the structure. The door loomed at him and creaked on its hinges as Marian pushed his way into it and closed the doors—and summer heat—behind him. The door to the room was unlocked, Kain snoring on the floor. Marian picked his way past him and slid to the floor behind the bed. If Kain woke and saw him sleeping on the bed and himself on the floor, Marian would probably have hell to pay.

Although the wood planks were cold, Marian was used to it. He pulled his coat tightly around himself, back against the wall, and slept that way—curled in a compact ball about the size of Kain's oversized golem, Miikii, who was about two feet in diameter. Marian had no idea how it managed flight (although Miikii's idea of flight was a high jump and a bit of fluttering from its wings to achieve a perch on Kain's shoulder or head).

And so Marian slept. When Kain woke, though, he was none too happy about being left on the floor, where, as he put it, anyone, be it Akuma or human, could have killed him in his sleep and raided them for all they had, which was really mostly Kain's belongings, since Marian only actually had Judgment and the clothes on his back. The general swept his chestnut coloured hair over his shoulder and stared dully at Marian with reddish-green eyes, still hazy with his hangover.

"Well? What're_ you _lookin' at?"

"Nothing, master."

"Damn right you're not, brat." Kain tucked his coat into his suitcase and shoved Marian out the door, slamming it behind him and pushing his apprentice aside to walk in front of him. Marian didn't particularly mind this, considering that Kain was about twelve times his size and could probably easily kill him if he wasn't careful. Painfully, Marian might add, considering that Kain was someone who liked to watch his victims suffer.

Marian shivered. His mentor was a specimen of human that only truly belonged in a freak show, like the one Marian and his magical powers had been involved in.

He had a feeling that it was Kain's work of art when he found himself tumbling head over heels down the wooden staircase, Kain at the top, laughing his ass off while Marian lay on the ground, whimpering much against his will. A hand suddenly entered his vision, and he found himself accepting the help up where Kain would have probably stepped on him. "Thanks," he muttered, eying the boy that helped him up. He was about Marian's age—or at least young enough to be his size—and had hair that was literally the exact shade of chestnut as Kain's. Marian shivered a bit, hearing his mentor's heavy footfalls on the steps.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked, worried. Marian nodded slowly.

"Again, thanks," he said, sorry that he couldn't have more time. He flicked a wave over his shoulder and ran to catch _up _with Kain, who was already across the room and hardly caring anymore.

* * *

"So, idiot."

"Y-yes, Master Dragon?"

"Do you see this manor?" Marian was surprised that Kain put his intelligence below seeing the huge house. "There's someone in this house that I'd like you to… take care of for me."

"Is he an Akuma?"

"Er… sort of. Just go in, kill 'im, get outta there. I'll be in the next town. Make it fast."

Marian felt a pit of unease growing in his stomach. _If this person isn't an Akuma, how could I possibly kill them? I'm training to be an exorcist, not a murderer._

Kain gave him a rough shove. "Go on." With that, Kain turned and began to walk away, leaving Marian to do his bidding.

Marian turned back to the ancient-looking manor. The wood was worn and cracked, paint faded beyond repair, and some of the windows were missing their glass. The door screeched when he shoved it open. "Hello?" he asked the filmy light inside, and much to his relief, he didn't get an answer. The door squeaked shut on its hinges behind him.

From what it appeared to Marian, the house was deserted, and he groaned, in partial relief and partial annoyance. Kain had sent him in here for no reason. Sometimes, he wondered what kind of drug was rolled up with the tobacco inside Kain's cigarettes.

Then, a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He was about to turn to investigate when a spindly limb grabbed him from behind, circling his neck and pulling him down. "_Perfect," _the thing hissed, and Marian cried out when the thing that grabbed him _bit _his shoulder rather hard. He broke away and tried to grab at Judgment, but his vision blurred and he slid to the floor, dizzy. The weapon was beyond his ability to reach, both physically and mentally.

The thing that was attacking him was a tall, gangly, _humanoid _figure with straggly gray hair limply framing its face and a tattered brown robe covering it. It was the white colour of a corpse. Marian choked as a wave of weakness came over him and he slumped over, unconscious.

* * *

_Aaaaagh, my head…_ Marian thought, sitting up and rubbing his forehead. Night had fallen. "Dammit, Master Kain is going to _murder _me…"

He stood uneasily. Remembering the incident earlier, he looked around, searching for the corpse-like thing he'd been knocked out by. Judgment was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Meanwhile…

* * *

Kain looked up when the door banged open and his idiot of an apprentice entered the room. The boy deposited something on the table and stood aside, waiting for Kain to come and acknowledge him. As usual, Kain didn't pay him attention in the least.

At least until the boy pulled out Judgment and took aim at Kain. "Oi, whaddaya think yer doin', punk?" Kain growled. "Fine, fine, I'll look at what ye got…"

Marian arched an eyebrow. "Wow. You thought that weak little brat could handle me? Shame."

Kain looked up. "Ye've been bein' weakened in that ol' manor for eighty six years, Artemis…" he muttered, summoning his sword. The dragon etchings glowed excitedly when Kain raised his blade to his target.

Marian smirked, tilted his head. "_Infiro_," he whispered.

* * *

Marian was scared. Quite scared.

Considering that there was obviously something very wrong when he began to sink through the floor, he had hurried to leave the manor and find his mentor, but there was a sort of translucent wall surrounding the property that wasn't there before. Every time he neared it, the world began to do some sort of spinning thing and ended up right back on the front step of the manor.

Frustrated, he tried to punch the wall. His hand went through it thrice. "Damn… it… all!" he shouted, angry.

Something poked its head through the glassless window. "Hey, could you keep it down, brat? There's quite a few other ghosts here that Artemis screwed over before he got that crazy idea of his…"

"W..what? Ghosts?"

"Yeah," the figure said, rolling its milky white eyes. "Old sorcerer named Artemis. His body was dying, so he got it into his head that he could take over some poor young human's body. That exorcist guy from earlier—forget his name—sealed him back up here. We all saw him dump you here."

"But how can I be a ghost! I'm not _dead,_ am I?"

"No, no, of _course _not, hon. Just you're a soul without a body, while Artemis is in yours, and probably exacting his revenge on that exorcist fellow as we speak. No worries, he'll _obviously _return and get you back to your life."

Marian scowled. "Is there _any _way to get out of here?"

"Well… yes and no. You'd have to destroy the gem keeping this wall up, but the thing is, it's designed so that ghosts, spirits, demons, the like… we can't touch it. Get a human in their body to toss it, though, and then you're free to go snag your body back from Artemis. _If _you can force him out of it."

"So what, he's going to live forever just going through people like that?"

"Basically. He's obviously figured out how to steal a body from a human being; when yours gets old and starts dying, he'll just do it again."

"Can't Dragon just handle him again?"

"I doubt it. He only won by luck last time."

"When was last time?" Marian asked, sitting slowly."

"Mmmm… I'd say, about 90 years ago."

Marian choked. "90?! Master Dragon's hardly 30!"

"Pah, so he'd have you think. He's one of them _wyrmfolk_, the kind that are immortal unless they're killed by something. Can't die of age and stuff. Artemis was probably hoping to get his hands on that, but considering he's already got his slimy hands on your young, healthy body… he's no fool, boy."

"So how long will I be stuck here?" Marian whispered.

The ghost waved its hand. "Either until another human comes along, or you're stuck here with the rest of us forever."

"Forever?" Marian felt faint again. The ghost drifted through the wall and sat next to him.

"What's your name, boy?" Now that he could have a better look, the ghost looked like an older woman, tall and slender, with thick dark hair pulled on top of her head, and glittering ice-coloured eyes. She had a strange accent that he couldn't quite place.

"Marian… I'm Marian…"

"I'm Veronica. I've been here about 100 years now. Almost a century… that's the last time I vacation in England," she said, obviously trying to lighten Marian's mood. "That was ghost humour," she said dryly when he just stared at her confusedly. "I came over here from America with my fiancé to have one last long trip before we married. Artemis was some distant relative of his… he was out, Artemis got to me, and we never saw each other again. Old bastard told him that I ran away from the marriage. And guess what! He _bought it!_" Veronica's hands bunched up her dress, and she slowly tried to calm herself. "I'm sorry. Sometimes us ghosts—they call us 'angry spirits'—we get mad when we think about what happened after we died. Or got ripped from our bodies by force, in your case."

Marian whimpered and felt loneliness crush him. "Are you the only one here?" he asked quietly.

Veronica picked at a bit of her hair. "No… there's about twelve others. I'm probably the only one you'll see, though. The others are really old. Faded. Like fog on a sunny day."

"Ghosts fade?"

"Of course we do! Spend enough time away from a body and you'll eventually be a whisper of wind every now and again. I mean, look at me. White eyes and somewhat translucent! You're still solid as a rock from what I can see. And such eyes… I haven't seen chimera eyes since Melanie, and she's already vanished. She had a blue eye and a green eye… your eyes are weird, though. Red and green. Like Christmas," she giggled at the comment, and Marian smiled sadly.

"Yeah… like Christmas."

* * *

Artemis eyed his handiwork. The old rat of a General was nothing more than a charred black corpse, twisted at his feet. He scratched distractedly at his head and examined the gun that the kid had on him. It was made of Innocence, he quickly deduced, which explained why he was with a man like Kain Dragon. _To the Black Order, then… I doubt they've heard of Dragon's apprentice. They'll buy the act in a second._

* * *

**Random Time Skip of 42 Years**

_Enter Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, Kanda, and Komui_

* * *

"So. You all have maps, do you see the spot I've highlighted?" Komui asked, pointing to a similar spot on his larger map behind his desk. Allen and company nodded dumbly—Komui had been going over this for almost 20 minutes.

"Brother, please, I think we know what to do. Go investigate the creepy old house. Easy said, easy done," Lenalee sighed, preparing to bash Komui's head with a clipboard if he didn't comply.

"I—oh, fine. Go on, the train is waiting! It shouldn't take you more than a few hours—we're relatively local this time around…"

"Goodbye!" the group simultaneously chanted (even Kanda joined), and they fled quickly, dragging a few select Finders with them.

* * *

"This is the place?" Lavi asked, staring at the dilapidated house with a confused look in his eye. "One would think that a report would be filed in a habitable place, not something that hasn't been slept in for about, hey, a thousand years."

Allen snorted laughter. "Come on, it'll be easy. If it's an Akuma, just take care of it. If it's Innocence… well, I doubt there will be much to stop us from getting to it."

Of course, things _were _easier said than done. The front door wouldn't open right off the bat—they had to come to entering through one of the broken out windows, much to Allen's dismay.

"Hello?" There were no answers for any of them, regardless of how much they called. "Nobody's home, let's find what we're looking for and get out of here," Kanda snapped irritably. Lavi gave him a goofy grin and proceeded to split everyone up.

"Use your golems to communicate. We can just send a message to everyone else if we find anything," he explained, as if they didn't already get the point. Lavi took the basement; Lenalee got the first floor, Allen the second, and Kanda the attic.

A scant few minutes after everyone settled in to search, they received messages from Allen. He'd found a rather oddly placed corpse on the second floor, headless and pale with mummification. His three companions flocked to the area, and Lavi dropped to a knee by the body to examine it.

"Sheesh, this guy's been dead for like… ever," he practically shouted. An unfamiliar person leaned down next to him.

"Nah, forty-two years sounds about right."

"Forty two? Allen, where did you…"

Lavi turned to stare into the slightly opaque eyes of someone he'd never met before. A redhead, just like him, with one bright red eye and one soft green. He had a kind, tired-looking face, also somewhat transparent.

"You… who are you? Why are you transparent? WHO ARE YOU?" Lavi exclaimed, freaking out, as usual. The boy stared at him, one eye closed.

"You're entirely insane, aren't you," he muttered before turning to Allen. "You seem to be slightly more… mentally stable. How about helping a ghost like me get back into my skin?"

Allen stared, dumbfounded. "Ghost?"

"Well, more like bodyless spirit. I got my soul ripped out and body stolen by _that _creep there. Then he went and killed my mentor… not a fun time for me."

"And who are you?" Kanda huffed, annoyed at the intrusion.

"Me? I'm Marian Cross," the boy supplied. Allen choked.

"You? Marian Cross?"

"Yeah, how do you know that name?"

"Because, Marian Cross...was my mentor for about six years."

The boy snorted. "That wasn't Marian Cross. That was Artemis, the twisted sorcerer who stole my body to get a few good years outta life." He muttered the last part darkly, narrowing his eyes at the corpse on the ground.

"You said you needed help?" Lenalee interjected before Lavi or Allen could ask another stupid question.

"Yeah," the boy—claiming to be Marian—said, brightening. "There's this stone here in the house. I don't know where it is—we can't get near it. But it creates this magical barrier around this place, trapping all of us here."

"All of us?"

"Thirteen unhappy spirits, including me," Marian said, almost proudly. "We've been waiting a very long time… for any human to show up. I was the last living person to be here. And then… y'know, _that _happened."

"Give us a minute," Lenalee said. She grabbed her friends and they formed a tight circle—or, triangle, with a singular point outside of the shape, that being Kanda—and she hissed, "Do you think he's telling the truth? He does sound sort of crazy, but the fact that he's a ghost and there is a body here to support his story says otherwise."

"I've never actually spoken to a ghost, so I wouldn't know," Lavi whispered in reply. Allen shrugged. Kanda che'd. Lenalee shrugged and returned to the waiting boy.

"Do you have a slight idea where this stone might be?"

Marian shrugged. "Prolly in the basement or the attic. I've no idea how big it'd be or what it'd look like—I can't go up there or down there, you see. They're just not interesting enough to me, although apparently there's this little girl's spirit that runs around in the basement. I've thought about—"

"Okay, okay, enough information," Kanda snapped. Marian glared at him.

"Is he always like that?" he said, mock stage-whispering to Allen. The Brit grinned at him.

"Of course. He's Kanda, how else would he act? Now, listen. We're gonna find this stone… but what do you want us to do with it?"

"Destroy it. Or something. Veronica told me that it has to be destroyed—"

"Veronica?"

"Another ghost. She's long faded away. But anyways, you have to get rid of it to lift the barrier. And a little point in the direction of my body would be nice, too. Since, y'know, I've been formulating a plot for revenge for only about forever."

"You're sure about this?" Allen asked.

Marian nodded. "Absolutely positive."

"Then you and I, Marian… we've got a deal."


End file.
